


Of Coffee Rings and Bubble Gum

by kai_foxflight



Series: A World Beyond [1]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Platonic Relationships, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 14:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11580414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kai_foxflight/pseuds/kai_foxflight
Summary: Taemin and Minho are forced to share a table at a crowded coffee shop, and it doesn't go quite as Minho expected.





	Of Coffee Rings and Bubble Gum

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Forced to share a table at the coffee shop a couple days in a row because crowded coffee shop and no room

“Do you mind if I sit here?”  


“Just don’t touch my things.” Minho gulped at the black-rimmed eyes glared at him through wispy bangs. “You got it mister?”

“Sure, kid.” He pulled the chair out with on hand, dropping it down on the tile floor with a quiet thud before sitting, straight-backed, ankles crossed, across from the slouching student. His coffee hovered centimeters about the table, papers leaving not even the smallest space uncovered. “Can I put my cup down at least?”

“Nope.” The teen gave a small smirk, popping a bubble of gum to accent the end.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“My table, my rules.”

“I don’t see your name anywhere on here.” Without any hesitation, the student picked up a Sharpie, uncapped it with pearl white teeth and held the piece of plastic between lipstick-stained lips. The hand holding the pen pushed some papers away to reveal the shiny table top, creating squeaks only they heard as the tip dragged across the smooth surface. Only after the pen was capped and another bubble popped did the student’s eyes meet Minho’s again. “There. My table.” The papers were pushed back, but not before the elder caught sight of what was written.

“Taeyeon? Is that your name?”

“Is that any of your business, mister?”

“Minho. My name is Minho.”

“I already knew that.” The pen tapped on the tabletop to an unknown beat and Minho was close to smashing his hand on top of the perfectly manicured one to stop it.

“Ho—”

“Your cup, smart one.” In the few seconds he glanced down to see that his name was, in fact, written on the side of the drink he had still yet to have, the papers on the tabletop disappeared. “Happy now?”

“Where are you going?”

“Some of us have lives outside of harassing schoolgirls, you know.” Taeyeon stood, stuffing the pile of papers into a bag before slinging the strap over her shoulder. As she turned, Minho realized just how short her uniform skirt was as part of her lacy black thong peaked out at him. “Stop staring, asshole.”

...

Minho wasn’t surprised to find the coffee shop crowded to capacity the next morning either. But as he waited to pick up his regular order, his eyes were searching the tables for the one in the corner, a familiar head of russet hair tied up loosely perched with her back to him. Grabbing a muffin from the counter—and ignoring Key’s yells at him, because Minho knew Key would suck it up and just take the money from him later—and his cup, Minho weaved his way through the standing crowd to the same seat, sitting down without asking this time.

The same eyes looked up from her singular notebook, not rimmed with black today and framed with thick glasses instead. “What are you doing here?”

“There’s no other seats. I got you a muffin.” The peace offering was pushed on a napkin across the surface, gliding as easily as a leaf on the breeze. Taeyeon only stared at it, not making a move to even reach for it, and Minho pushed it with just his fingertips until it was right in front of her. “Eat.”

“I’m allergic to nuts.”

“Really?” Minho gave a heavy sigh, pulling it back to his side with a little pout. “So much for that then,” he gave a small laugh. “Sorry.”

“What do you want?”

“I didn’t mean to look up your skirt yesterday, you know.”

Taeyeon blinked at him a few times before shaking her head, a muttering under her breath even though Minho could clearly hear. “Freaking pervert.”

“I’m not—”

“I don’t care about that. Just leave me alone and stop sitting here. I can’t get any work done.”

“Well what are you doing?” Minho peered over the table at the notebook, but it was snatched away before he got a good look. “What? I can’t see. Maybe I can help; I’m a teacher, after all.”

“I’ll have you fired for harassing a student.”

“How am I harassing you?”

“Leave me alone and stop sitting here.”

“It’s not like you own the table.” Taeyeon huffed in annoyance, glaring at Minho through her bangs before standing, chair sliding back with a loud squeal. She grabbed her bag, throwing it over her shoulder as she walked off, leaving her drink abandoned at the table.

Minho could only watch as she walked up to the counter, his eyes focused on the way the uniform pants hung off of her as if she had no body to fill— _ pants?  _ Before the realization hit him, Taeyeon was talking with one of the workers, pointing over at him repeatedly. A few seconds later, Key appeared beside them, laughing as soon as Taeyeon pointed him out again. After a minute, Taeyeon stalked out looking more than displeased and Key was standing in front of Minho, a barely hidden smirk on his face. “You do know you just pissed off Jinki’s brother, right? You’re going to have to find somewhere else to get coffee for a few days, I’m afraid…”

“B-b-brother? That’s  _ Taemin _ ?” He was smacked before he even knew what happened. “What?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“But yesterday… sh—he said his name was Taeyeon.”

“Yeah. Yesterday, she wanted that. Today he’s Taemin.” Key clicked his tongue, shaking his head as Minho only stared at him. “I have to get back to work, and you are already late. Don’t come back until next week or you won’t be allowed here at all.”

...

When Monday rolled around again, Minho was sitting on the steps of the shop long before Key was even there to open it. “What are you doing here?”

“Key said he wanted to talk to me…” He gave a large yawn, eyes shut just long enough for the person haunting his dreams to get in front of him before he realized. “H-hey, what are you doing?”

“Move and I’ll open up for you.” The toe of a boot hit his side not-so-gently and Minho winced but slide over, opening up the doorway. After a few seconds of jingling keys, the door flew open and the boots stalked past him, disappearing inside. “Either come in or close the door. I don’t want any bugs.”

Minho listened slowly, clambering in and shutting the door before he could think straight. “What are you doing?”

“Making some coffee.” There were some clatters and clinks from the other side before a cup appeared on the counter in front of Minho, latte as he had it every morning and a small bear drawn on top. “You look like you’re a zombie.”

“How’d you do that? Are you even allowed back there?”

“I work here, don’t I?” All Minho could do to reply was sip the drink as if his life didn’t depend on having something other than horrible homemade black coffee flow into him. “$5 please.”

“You little—” Minho didn’t even get to finish before the laughter started.

“I’m kidding! I’m not allowed to charge for it before hours. So enjoy the free drink.” Taeyeon—or Taemin, Minho still hadn’t gotten his mind around that, but seeing as the kid was wearing the skirt uniform today, he was going with Taeyeon—leaned on the counter, head in her hands as she watched Minho take another sip. “If that’s all you want, are you going to leave or sit here until the place actually opens?”

“I wanted to talk to you actually…”

“I’m listening.”

“I’m sorry for being an asshole if I was one… I  _ swear _ I didn’t mean to look up your skirt or bother you or anything like that. I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.” Minho glanced at her, but Taeyeon had her back to him as she bustled around on the other side of the counter. “I promise.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. You name it and I’ll do it.”

“Hm…” There was a loud clatter, followed by a curse from Taeyeon as she dropped everything in her hands to suck on the tip of her finger.

“Are you okay?”

“I just busted my finger I think.” There was another clatter as the part of the machine she abandoned started to slide off the counter and before Minho knew what he was doing, his coffee cup was abandoned as he hopped the cashier’s space, catching the piece just before it fell on Taeyeon’s foot.

“Still okay?” He glanced up at the wide-eyed girl, straightening up and placing the metal cover on the counter safely as he looked. “Taeyeon?”

“Y-yeah… Sorry…” Slowly, she took a step back, bloodied finger forgotten as her arm limply fell to her side. “I’m going to go get Jinki from upstairs…” Before Minho could stop her, she turned tail and fled, disappearing out the front door and up the steps on the side in seconds. Minho made to follow her, but the second he moved away from the counter, the cover started to fall again and he was dashing back to get it.

Eventually, Jinki came to fix the machine and free Minho from being trapped holding it, but Taeyeon didn’t return.

...

“So… Taeyeon, I wa—”

“Tae.” Minho stopped mid-sentence, faltering as soon as he was interrupted and unsure of how to respond to the seemingly-random outburst.

“What?”

“You seem really confused on what to call me, so you can just call me Tae. He, she, they, it doesn’t matter to me. But just call me Tae.”

“O…kay?”

“You can continue as you were saying now.” Tae smirked, crossing their arms and leaning back in the chair to watch Minho was narrowed eyes. “But it has to be quick because my ride for school comes in 2 minutes.”

“I, um… I forgot.”

“Sucks to be you then.” They popped a bubble of gum—Minho couldn’t even figure out where it all came from—before standing up and shouldering a bag full of books. “See you next week.”

“Wait!”

“What?”

“Can I… get your number?”

Tae stopped, popped a bubble completely emotionless, and then nodded slightly. “Sure. Ask Jinks for it. I’ll be going now if you don’t need anything else.”

“One last question!”

“ _ What _ ?”

“I promise it’s quick… but why do you dress as a girl some days and a boy others?”

Tae huffed, stamped their foot and turned heel, stalking away without giving Minho an answer. Last second, they turned back, hair flopping into their face and making them look even more annoyed. “You really couldn’t have asked that with an hour to talk about it? I’ll explain later, asshole.”

...

“So you said you’d explain…?”

“First of all, asshole,” Taeyeon twirled a strand of hair around her finger, huffing as she wedged her cell between her shoulder and head to continue typing a mile a minute on the computer, “you don’t just go asking someone that. Second, dressing like a girl or a guy doesn’t mean shit, because girls and guys can wear whatever they want and still be a girl or guy or neither or both. Third, you don’t ask something that personal in public like you did. Fourth, you’re just an asshole for asking and I’m so angry I can’t be bothered to come up with anything else. But…”

“But…?”

“Oh, sorry, I was just speaking allowed as I wrote my paper for school.” Taeyeon smirked when Minho snorted into the other end. “You’re lucky I’ve dealt with enough shitty uncourteous teens to not be bothered that much being asked as rudely as you did.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be.”

“But…”

“Geez, give me a minute. I’m finishing my essay.”

“What on?” Taeyeon didn’t answer, and Minho was met with silence only broken by the clicking of keys. After a minute, however, it stopped and a muffled sigh came through the phone. “Done?”

“As done as I’ll ever be. To answer you now… LGBTQ rights and misrepresentation of the majority of people who fall onto the spectrum to the public.”

“…what?”

“I’ll explain it to you eventually. First, I’ll answer your original question. Because I want to.”

“But—”

“Shut up asshole.” The sound of Minho’s teeth clicking together from the force he shut his mouth with was heard over the line. “I’m genderfluid. So some days I want to present as a girl, and I do. Some days I want to present as a boy. Some days I’m a weird mix of the two, or neither, or anything.”

“Isn’t that just transsexual or whatever?”

“No.”

“But—”

“The word you are looking for is transgender, but I’m not transgender. I don’t feel like one specific gender. I’m a whole bunch. It changes like water.” As that was said, a clatter came from Taeyeon’s end of the line, followed by a muffled string of curses. “Speaking of which, I just poured a cup of water over my laptop. We’ll talk another time.”

...

The next morning, Minho sat down with a very disgruntled teen. “How’s the laptop?”

“Fucking ruined. I can’t even get anything off of it and the piece of shit won’t turn on and the stupid warranty ended last fucking week.” Taemin groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “My whole 20 page essay is gone…”

“I might be able to help with that.”

“What they hell could you know about technology that I don’t?” Minho snorted, taking Taemin’s smudged-eyeliner-eyed glare with a hearty dose of laughter. “This isn’t funny, Choi.”

“When’d you find out my last name?”

“Not important. How can you fix it?”

“A friend of mine works my school’s computer lab. He owes me a favor so…”

“I promise to pay you back in whatever way you want if you get him to do it.”

Minho shrugged, then nodded. “I have no other use for the favor… so why not? Can you come to the technical school just down the street with it this afternoon?”

“I can now if you want.”

“But—”

“I’m off for today and tomorrow.” Taemin gave a small, pained smile and stood. “Let’s go then.”

“What about my breakfast though?”

The teen snorted, looking at the scattered mess of food the teacher had bought for them. “Eat it while I go change and get my computer.”

“Aren’t you having some?”

“I can’t have gluten.” Taemin was already walking away backwards, but still managed a laugh at Minho’s annoyed expression, then the lost look on his face as he turned to the large amount of food at the table. “I’ll be back in five minutes and we can go then! And Jinki!” He turned towards the counter, huffing in annoyance when his brother didn’t look. “Jinks! Kinky Jinki!”

“Don’t call me that, Lee Taemin!”

Even Minho bit back a chuckle as Taemin stuck his tongue out at his brother, multiple regulars of the café doing the same at the sibling quarrel. “I’m going out with Minho so sorry but you’re going to need someone else today.”

“Yah! Taemin!”

“Got to go, hyung!”

...

“So what was the point of wearing your school uniform if you don’t have school today?”

“I was going to work the café so… it doubles as that uniform too.” Taemin shrugged, readjusting the strap on his shoulder. “Just how far is this school anyway?”

“Only a few more blocks…” Minho glanced at him from the corner of his eye, watching as the boy struggled with the bag and keeping up with him, a thin sheen of sweat making his face shine. “Give me that.”

“What?”

“You look pitiful carrying a bag probably half your weight. Give it to me.” Without waiting for Taemin to answer, he reached out and grabbed the strap, lifting it above Taemin’s head and having hold of the not-as-heavy-as-he-thought bag. “There. Keep up now, or you’ll get hit by a car or something.”

“Thank you…” The words were lost on a breeze, barely audible, and Minho chose to ignore them to save both of them from embarrassment of acknowledging the caring action.

“Do you happen to have your school ID on you?”

“It’s probably not going to do us much help if you need it for identification.”

“Why not?”

Taemin fell silent, scrambling to search through his pockets before pulling out the plastic card and thrusting it in front of Minho. Almost immediately, there was loud guffaws from Minho. “That’s you?!”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“This picture looks like 5 years old.”

“The school said I have to show my ‘actual gender’ and that’s the only picture I ever let them take, in grade 6.” Taemin cleared his throat, a hand darting out to take the card back at the same time. “Jinki and I fought hard for them to give me a gender-neutral ID, but the school refused. So that happened. I can’t use it for anything.”

“I’ll just say your wallet with it was stolen.”

“Good idea.” They were silent for a few seconds, taking just a few steps, before both burst into laughter, Taemin’s more dignified than Minho’s.

“They actually gave you that instead of removing one little line from the ID?”

It took Taemin a few seconds to calm himself, wiping gently under his eyes to not mess up any of the liner around them. “I think it was supposed to be a punishment, but it’s more funny than anything.”

...

“Yo, Jjong, I have something for you to do.” Minho snorted as the other teacher wiped sleep from his eyes, blinking blearily at him for a few seconds before the third person was noticed. Almost immediately, he was awake and staring. “This is Tae. Their laptop broke, so fix it.”

“You’re going to have to tell me more tha—”

“I have to go take care of my class, but Tae is going to stay here. Behave.” Just as the bell rang, Minho turned heel and stalked out, leaving the two strangers alone.

And it took a second before ‘Jjong’ smiled and held out his hand. “Jonghyun. Nice to meet you.”

“Tae. Sorry if this causes you any problems.”

“You kidding?” Jonghyun motioned around the practically-empty computer lab, only occupied by work tables and a few computers laying around here and there. “I’m bored out of my mind here all day. So let’s do this. What happened to it?”

...

It was over an hour into Tae watching Jonghyun disassemble the laptop that his phone rang, traditional music blaring in the otherwise-silent room. With a blush he’d answered and stood, trying to ignore Jonghyun’s barely-contained laughter. “Hello?”

“What the hell do you think you are doing, cutting out on your brother like that? You should know he can’t get anyone else in on such short notice and that he won’t refuse you either and that’s no way to behave, Lee Taeyeon.”

“Kibum. It’s Tae today.”

“Whatever the fuck it is, don’t do that to your brother. You’re lucky I have nothing to do but help him all day.”

“Key, listen—”

“And you better make this up to him. Understand? Good.” Before Tae could answer, there was a click and then a dial tone, the other end disconnected from him.

“Thanks  _ so much _ Kibum.”

“What was that about?”

“It’s nothing.” Tae turned to the pieces of the computer spread across the work table. “So is there anything you can do to save it?”

“Well,” Jonghyun heaved a sigh, shoulders slumping with it, “I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Whichever one tells me if you can fix it or not.”

“So… bad news.” Tae’s eye roll didn’t go unnoticed. “The circuits shorted out. This computer’s not going to turn on again.”

“So everything is lost?”

“Good news, I salvaged your hard drive.” Jonghyun gave a small smile as he lifted the piece from the wreckage. “So we should be able to use the computers here and get some important things off of it for you. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” Tae gave a blinding smile. “That’s perfect. Thank you. Really.”

“Don’t thank me for doing my job. Shall we get started?”

“Excuse me?” Jonghyun spun around quickly to face the student standing half-hidden in the doorway, a small smile taking control of his face as they stumbled a few times before speaking again. “I-is Miss Kim here? Mrs. Kwon sent me to get her but…”

“‘ _ Miss _ Kim’?” Jonghyun muttered under his breath, scoffing.  “Tell her I’ll come in a few minutes, okay?”

“B-but… she asked for Ms. Kim?”

“And Ms. Kim is coming. But make sure to tell her it’s Mister.” The student nodded and slowly left, leaving Jonghyun to turn back to the laptop with a more frustrated look on his face than before. “I’m just going to set this up for you and then I have to go help her, okay?”

“That’s fine…” Tae watched as Jonghyun’s action became fiercer, more force going into the motions. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?” It took a second for Jonghyun to realize and when he did, he dropped everything immediately. “Yeah, sorry. Just… angry.”

“Because of that other teacher? She probably just let it slip on accident…”

“No, she didn’t. She’s constantly doing that because she feels transitioning is wrong and sinful and disgusting and—oh crap I really just said that, didn’t I?” Jonghyun heaved a bigger sigh, lifting the hard drive from the table and walking away. “Let’s just fix this for you. Forget about my rambling.”

“It’s okay, you know.”

“Listen, kid, I don’t need some teenager who I could be teaching—why aren’t you in school anyway?—trying to preach ‘it’s okay to be who you are’ to me.”

“I wasn’t going to.” Tae gave a small smile, still not moving from the original workbench even though Jonghyun was across the room now. “I was just going to say it’s okay to ramble about it if you want. I understand.”

“I’m sorry but I really don’t think you would.”

“Really? Because I’m genderfluid. I probably know a lot more than you think.”

Jonghyun froze, blinked a few times, and then squinted at Tae. “ _ Really _ ?”

“Really.”

“So like you… what’s your preferred name then? PGP? Do you need me to not out you to anyone or…?” Tae laughed, eyes twinkling as they finally stood and joined Jonghyun at the computer across the room.

“Today it’s Tae, they/them/theirs. Some days it’s Taeyeon, she and all that, or Taemin, he and all that.” They smiled as Jonghyun nodded along, working in a significantly happier way. “And not really… Minho knows and I’m pretty open about it so… You?”

“You can call me Jonghyun because Mr. Kim is just… weird. He or they.” There was a final-sounding click and he pulled back from the computer with a huge smile. “That should work then. I have to go help out around the school but once this starts up, you should be able to access your files. Do you have a USB to put them on or do you need me to get you one?”

...

Minho was surprised to find the coffee shop packed to capacity once again a few weeks later. At the counter, he didn’t even have a chance to speak before Key pushed a cup and a bagel into his hands with a small smile and turned to the next customer.

Only one table was left open, papers spread everywhere, a textbook perched precariously on the edge, and a sticker-covered laptop on top of it all. He silently crept up behind the student sitting there, reading the essay open on the computer over her shoulder. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

Taeyeon glanced over her shoulder, kohl-lined eyes narrowed behind her glasses, and popped a bubble of bubble-gum-pink gum, before smirking. “Just don’t touch my things. You got it mister?”

He laughed, placing the bagel in front of her before sitting in the chair across from her. Carefully, he pushed the papers aside just enough to make room for his cup, placing it down under Taeyeon’s watchful eyes. “So what shop is closed this week?”

Taeyeon looked around, shrugged, and then popped another bubble. “None.”

“Why’s the whole world here then?” He only got a shrug in reply.

“Remember that essay I wrote?” Minho blinked dumbly. “The one that I spilt all the water on my computer after and Jonghyun helped me save it?”

“Yeah…?”

“It kind of went viral…” Taeyeon smirked as Minho’s eyes widened. “I’m going on a talk show later.”

“Really?!”

“And Jonghyun’s coming with me.” She closed her laptop, packing it away and stuffing the papers and book in with them. “Want to come watch?”


End file.
